The Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday, which its former executive editor said “ranks among the darkest days” in the newspaper’s history. Approximately one-third of employees were affected.
Staffers at the Post have been on edge for weeks about the rumored cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee, not authorized to speak publicly.
During a morning meeting announcing the changes, the editor in chief, Matt Murray, told employees that the Post was undergoing a “strategic reset” to better position the publication for the future, according to several employees who were on the call.
Murray acknowledged that the Post had struggled to reach “customers” and talked about the need to compete in a crowded media marketplace. “Today, the Washington Post is taking a number of actions across the company to secure our future,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting.
Murray told employees that the Post was ending the current iteration of its popular sports desk, though some employees would remain on a new team. The Post is also restructuring its local coverage, reducing its international reporting operation, cutting its books desk and suspending its flagship daily news podcast Post Reports.
by shhhhh_h
13 Comments
One day there will be no newspapers. maybe even no news. Think about it. schools are now using AI to tailor learning for the needs and interests of individual students. when they are all grown up, they will expect the whole world to reflect their completely subjective education. They will demand information be tailored for just them. Nothing else will make sense to them. there will be no more objectivity. what use will there be for “news?”
Tech bros ruin everything
Guy is worth 200 billion, then decides to buy a paper and cut its workforce by 1/3.
According to Gene Weingarten’s substack (he used to be a columnist at the Post and won a Pulitzer there), in the private chat among the affected journalists, people provided links to su*cide prevention resources, and there’s a GoFundMe to support those who lost their jobs.
[https://substack.com/@geneweingarten600315/note/p-186860288](https://substack.com/@geneweingarten600315/note/p-186860288)
No news outlet, no education, no rights for minorities, no free thought….it’s almost if
WaPo still has a lot of sources inside Congress and the White House.
I’m sure this is Bezos sending a message to Trump that he is willing to play ball.
He has to make up for that $70 million Trump bribe, I mean Melania “documentary,” and all the tickets he bought to pretend people saw it.
I canceled my subscription after they fired Karen Attiah. There were already some red flags and I had dropped Amazon immediately after the orange’s inauguration, but still found some reporting worthwhile.
Anyway, it’s a pity what these billionaires have done to journalism.
Bezos could save millions just by cutting his wife’s plastic surgery allowance by a third,
I still don’t understand what’s the end game for these billionaires. Regardless of who is in the White House, both parties are in their pockets. They also own, almost everything. Everything that requires mass production, that’s for sure.
So when they leave all of us out of jobs, who will purchase their goods?
Musk ranting about liberals has driven the lowest Tesla sales in years (and they keep declining).
Bezos firing 16000 Amazon workers only leads to less customers for amazon.com.
So what’s the play here? Are they aware that all their stock evaluation will explode like an over inflated balloon once none of us have money to spend?
I’ve seen people cancelling their subscriptions today and… the Washington Post hasn’t been an independent source of news since it was bought by a billionaire. That happened more than a decade ago.
Why does it take people so long to catch up?
I’ve heard people even saying “There’s only one major newspaper in the U.S. now.” Do you mean the New York Times? It’s been right of center for over a decade, too, and obviously whitewashes everything conservatives do. Stop supporting these institutions just because they’ve been around a long time.
What a horrible downfall of a once-prestigious institution.